Businesses are one of the last bastions of the desktop PC. Laptops and all-in-ones have infiltrated offices just as they have everywhere else, but enterprises are still buying plenty of PC towers from the likes of HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

That doesn't mean that these towers have to be boring. While Micro ATX desktops are still the norm, the advancements in technology that have allowed for thinner and more powerful laptops can be used to make a business desktop that takes up less space without giving up the power and repairability so important for businesses. Lenovo's ThinkCentre M92p isn't the first tiny desktop on the market by any means, but it brings Ivy Bridge processors, triple monitor support, USB 3.0, and management and security features that businesses like in a package that won't take up much space on your desk. Lenovo sent us a review unit so we could investigate further.

Hardware

The M92p is the smallest version of the ThinkCentre M92 desktop lineup, and it comes in a sturdy metal case that measures 7" by 1.35" by 7.1" and weighs just a bit less than three pounds. Like many business desktops, the various sizes of the M92 use the same components and drivers to make the customization and deployment of operating system images easier for administrators.

The M92p is unique among tiny desktops in its support for business-class features: most notably, it includes support for Intel’s Active Management Technology, which is used by enterprise management systems like Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Dell’s KACE to manage software and patches even when computers are powered off. TPM hardware is also standard, making these PCs easy to encrypt using BitLocker.

Otherwise, the M92p’s hardware is good for a machine of this size. It sports Intel’s Core i5-3470T, a dual-core processor with Hyperthreading that runs at 2.9GHz but can Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz for single-threaded tasks. The accompanying Intel Q77 chipset supports four USB 3.0 ports—two on the front, along with the headphone and microphone jacks, and two on the back, where they join a VGA port, DisplayPort, one USB 2.0 port, a gigabit Ethernet jack, a Kensington lock slot, and a slot for the wireless antenna for models configured with WiFi.

Enlarge/ On the front of the M92p: a power button, activity lights, two USB 3.0 ports, and audio jacks.

Andrew Cunningham

This particular CPU is paired with Intel’s HD Graphics 2500 integrated graphics processor, which is a step down from the Intel HD 4000 that we’ve seen in most of our other Ivy Bridge review units to this point. Beginning with Sandy Bridge, Intel’s on-processor GPUs became segmented: in almost all laptop CPUs and higher-end desktop CPUs, you’ve got Sandy Bridge’s Intel HD Graphics 3000 and Ivy Bridge’s HD 4000, both of which boost performance significantly over previous-generation products. Lower-end desktop processors, on the other hand, come with cut-down versions of those chips like Sandy Bridge’s HD 2000 and Ivy Bridge’s HD 2500—these GPUs share a common architecture and feature set with their faster counterparts but include fewer rendering units, leading to reduced 3D performance.

Enlarge/ The M92p's back features VGA and DisplayPort outputs, a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a jack for the computer's external power adapter, a Kensington lock slot, and a spot where the wireless antenna would be if our unit included one.

Andrew Cunningham

As we’ll see in our benchmarks later on, you do give up quite a lot of graphics performance by eschewing the HD 4000 for the HD 2500—the latter is a slight improvement over the HD 2000, but it's still slower than last year’s HD 3000. However, it includes features that for most businesses will remove the need for a dedicated graphics card. DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, OpenCL 1.1, Intel’s Wireless Display technology, triple monitor support (which requires Lenovo’s $79.99 DisplayPort to Dual DisplayPort cable), QuickSync, and certification for programs like AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Photoshop are all supported by the HD 2500 running the latest drivers. The HD 4000 is still superior, but the HD 2500 isn’t bad.

The M92p uses the same 5400RPM SATA hard drive that you’ll find in most laptops these days, and you can definitely feel the difference compared to the faster 7200RPM drives in desktops. An upgrade to a solid-state drive will fix this issue—Lenovo will sell you a 128GB SSD for $220 as of this writing, but you can easily purchase and install your own for less. The M92p comes with one 6Gb/s SATA 3.0 port on the motherboard—there’s no room for a second drive, and as such there’s no possibility for a RAID configuration here.

Wireless capabilities are also offered as upgrades to the base unit, which by default includes only an Intel gigabit Ethernet port—for $20, you can get Intel’s basic N105 single-band 802.11n WiFi adapter; for $30, you can get Intel’s N2230 which combines single-band 802.11n WiFi with Bluetooth 4.0; or for that same $30 you can get Intel’s N6205 dual-band 802.11n adapter. Unfortunately, there’s no option for dual-band WiFi that also includes Bluetooth, but at least the wireless options available are sensibly priced.

Enlarge/ The M92p's optical drive comes in its own frame, which the computer itself slides into. It adds some height and weight to the package but should soothe those who are afraid of the optical drive's demise.

Andrew Cunningham

Enlarge/ The optical drive plugs into the M92p's USB 2.0 port with the included short USB cable, and provides two extra USB 2.0 ports to the computer.

Andrew Cunningham

There’s also an included optical drive, which is actually part of a larger frame that is attached to the M92P, slightly increasing its width and increasing its height—this frame also serves as a VESA mount for the computer. The drive connects to the computer using a short USB 2.0 cable and also serves as a USB 2.0 hub that includes two additional USB ports. The drive is included with the M92p base model, but you can shave $25 off the price if you go with a DVD-ROM drive instead of a DVD-RW. It’s nice to have this as an option, especially in the change-averse business environment. But in 2012, with Ultrabooks beginning to infiltrate businesses, I would rather have it available as an optional accessory, perhaps in exchange for standard wireless and Bluetooth connectivity.

Rounding out the package, the computer comes with a basic 104-key keyboard and a three-button optical scroll mouse, both of which can be excluded from your order to save you $10 dollars apiece (and for $50, you can add a keyboard with an integrated fingerprint reader). There’s also an integrated speaker, though it’s so small and quiet that even with the volume turned all the way up you’d be forgiven for thinking it didn’t have any.

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Andrew Cunningham
Andrew wrote and edited tech news and reviews at Ars Technica from 2012 to 2017, where he still occasionally freelances; he is currently a lead editor at Wirecutter. He also records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites

42 Reader Comments

How's the noise level on this thing, especially when it's under load? Is it going to sound like a hovercraft ready to take off when it's doing something with Flash or decoding a BluRay? Is the CPU going to overheat or is the GPU going to overheat?

How's the noise level on this thing, especially when it's under load? Is it going to sound like a hovercraft ready to take off when it's doing something with Flash or decoding a BluRay? Is the CPU going to overheat or is the GPU going to overheat?

Heat and noise are both pretty negligible - you can definitely hear it when it's being pegged but it's no jet engine.

On the 'no wireless' comments: I'd consider bundled wireless a downside in a business desktop. Any decent business can manage a basic wired network, and many will consider a wireless network a security risk. Not having it just means the IT staff doesn't have to make sure it's turned off.

And while the VGA port may be old, it wouldn't surprise me if in the market this is aimed at it's still fairly common to find monitors (or projectors...) that don't speak anything else.

Re the bloatware, is Lenovo lying to the press about business customers being the primary target for these boxes, or are the bloatware vendors stupid enough not to realize the first thing an IT dept will do is to format the drive and load a clean OS image onto it?

Re the bloatware, is Lenovo lying to the press about business customers being the primary target for these boxes, or are the bloatware vendors stupid enough not to realize the first thing an IT dept will do is to format the drive and load a clean OS image onto it?

My guess would be Lenovo is lying to the bloatware vendors about the probability of anyone ever seeing the bundled apps. They know perfectly well how many of these are going to get imaged.

I've had an M72e in my hands for a couple weeks now (slightly lower spec of the same "tiny" package) and have decided it is going to be my standard issue desktop for the foreseeable future.For about $610CAN I'm getting a unit with 7200rpm drive, no wireless, and upgraded to 8Gb.

As for bloatware, I uninstalled nearly everything. Left Lenovo System Update and RapidBoot. After installing our other standard apps the box is sysprep'd and imaged for future deployments.

The boxes are nearly silent under normal load. Internal speaker is pretty weak, but I use monitors with built-in speakers so that isn't a concern for me.

Can assure you, that isn't Volume pricing. The company I work for is buying a shit tonne of these and there is no way they'd be paying over $500 a pop.

JEDIDIAH wrote:

How's the noise level on this thing, especially when it's under load? Is it going to sound like a hovercraft ready to take off when it's doing something with Flash or decoding a BluRay? Is the CPU going to overheat or is the GPU going to overheat?

We perform pretty heavy testing on these units when in SIT (vacuum cleaner bag dumped in it, then bubble wrapped, and left on for weeks on end). They are pretty sturdy

I like the small form-factor and easy access to the interior, but damn is that thing ugly. I've seen much better-looking mini computers from Dell. It doesn't even have any 'industrial chic' like ruggedized field equipment does to fall back on.

My primary concern when I see small form factors like this is how well it dissipates heat. One pretty generic-looking fan doesn't reassure me very well that this thing can efficiently wipe the sweat from it's processor's brow. I can't see if they did some sort of custom cowling under it like Apple did for the Mini.

Otherwise, hold onto the optical drive until you can sell it on eBay, double the RAM, swap the 500GB HDD for a 256GB SSD, and then it's something I'd be moderately inspired to purchase.

It seems distinctly unexceptional. No bundled wireless, and a mediocre processor. The VGA port is anachronistic, likewise the external power brick. No Thunderbolt either.

Ho hum... agreed, why is Ars reviewing this? I mean an old PS3 probably delivers better specs for 1/2 the price, if you're using this as a home theater PC. I could probably buy a laptop with better specs for less... I don't get it. Promo for Lenovo?

It seems distinctly unexceptional. No bundled wireless, and a mediocre processor. The VGA port is anachronistic, likewise the external power brick. No Thunderbolt either.

Ho hum... agreed, why is Ars reviewing this? I mean an old PS3 probably delivers better specs for 1/2 the price, if you're using this as a home theater PC. I could probably buy a laptop with better specs for less... I don't get it. Promo for Lenovo?

Apparently you missed the several mentions of this being targeted at the business market. Only an idiot would think something running HD2500 graphics has any business attempting to be a HTPC. Likewise, you wouldn't buy office drones laptops when they work at their desks all day.

This would be nearly perfect for my office, which doubles as a furniture showroom. There's a fine balance between being a showroom and a working office, and being able to shove one of these way back under a desk would be almost worth the price. As it was, that was what finally tipped the balance on starting to ditch the horrible, ancient Dimension towers most of the employees had (mostly that they looked old and out of place.) Sadly, the company has illusions of being green, yet had a small army of 2003-vintage P4 towers running 24x7 into 2011. If I could get them to point the money firehose my way, I might be able to sell them on how much better IB-based PCs would be - this would a sexy example if it was just a bit better. If it had a 128GB SSD for the same price, it'd be an easy sell.

On the other hand, the back panel seems to waste a lot of space. Looks like they could have fit at least 2 more USB ports back there (2.0 - don't make me waste 3.0 ports on kb or mouse.) I've got a mini-ITX board probably much larger than this, and it's got 6 USB, eSATA/USB, HDMI, VGA, DVI, ethernet, Bluetooth, and 5.1 + SPDIF audio - Lenovo couldn't do more than VGA, ethernet, and 3 USB? Really?

Apparently you missed the several mentions of this being targeted at the business market. Only an idiot would think something running HD2500 graphics has any business attempting to be a HTPC. Likewise, you wouldn't buy office drones laptops when they work at their desks all day.

Haha, whatever. I was talking of raw power. Shame on you for making insinuations. Check out: http://shuttlerocks.com/XH61V%20Barebones ... towers were way over-rated in their day, and the only practical extensibility I've seen is in a laboratory to control instruments over IEEE and GPIB buses, etc. Very rarely was a laptop insufficient for me in my many years in an electrical and mechanical engineering lab and it never afforded lack of flexibility -- for anyone that did their research.

BTW, Shuttle has been making small PC's for over 10 years. There are many others that have been doing the same thing.

I have been looking for a replacement mini server for my basement this almost makes the cut but I am holding out for a built in power supply in this form factor. So far it seems I could get a mac mini or a chromebox and install Cent on it. With the Mac I obviously pay a bit of a premium, but I haven't seen how easy to replace the small SSD will be on the chromebox.

I have been looking for a replacement mini server for my basement this almost makes the cut but I am holding out for a built in power supply in this form factor. So far it seems I could get a mac mini or a chromebox and install Cent on it. With the Mac I obviously pay a bit of a premium, but I haven't seen how easy to replace the small SSD will be on the chromebox.

Did you check out the mini PCs and 'barebones' kits on newegg, amz, tigerdirect? There's a lot of variety there (some just as small and one of them is a dead ringer for the chromebox), many deals and all of them are easier to edit than chromebox and mac mini, afaict.

This is a link to someone who tore one apart, but WARNING, this was the core i5 dev boxes they gave out at I/O, not the consumer box.

Which is why I was talking about all the people in the comment thread who expressed interest in it for home use, lamenting things like no integrated power supply, only 1 SATA port, and the fact it is butt ugly?

Fact is people like this form factor for home use. This is an option in that category, but there are better alternatives.

It's an "option in this category" (home-use) only in the same sense that a Mac Mini is an "option in the category" of business desktop PC: It's not aimed at that market, although it may well work in that market if your needs fit within its limitations. But evaluating and dismissing it based on its applicability to home-use is silly. As an enterprise desktop PC where the end user is largely accessing fixed resources like database queries, intranet-based systems, CMS systems, etc. this would be ideal, providing space savings over a traditional tower, and cost savings over enterprise-class laptops when the users in question may not have a need to be mobile. Like a thin-client with enough beef for desktop applications.

I could see these being used in health care in particular; space always seems to be incredibly limited in clinical settings.

Lenovo Thinkcentres are the Yugos of corporate desktops. Granted this is a new design here, but I have three C2D based Thinkcentre machines in my cube at the office. These are my "workhorse" workstations that I do some pretty heavy number crunching on, often via remote.

The reliability of these machines are dismal, the build quality is questionable, and I think that the core case design is flawed and results in poor cooling characteristics which often result in premature part failure. Namely in the last three years, I have had five HDDs fail in these machines.

By contrast, their laptops are probably the best of breed for corporate use...and far more reliable and durable.

People bitching about the specs on this ... I'm using an old celeron (P4's lame cousin) at work. I would kill for something like this.

But, as others have said, it'd be awesome if it had an SSD. I'd be happy with just a 60gb ssd. My IT shop stores users' My Documents folders on the server instead of on their box, so if the box blows up they can just reimage and get on with life. A 60gb ssd would be plenty.

But, no... the VP of finance needs a new iPhone and iPad to do his job... so, the poor data analyst gets to suffer.

edit:

As for heat performance, I've "owned" (read as "found") 2 form-factors in the past, and while they ran hot they were solid little machines. I just recently got rid of an old 1.8ghz P4 gateway biz form factor that, after years of abuse at whatever shop is was running at, and crunching boinc projects for me for a solid year at 100% cpu usage finally pooped out. I think the ram blew up, b/c it kept giving memory dumps and wouldn't boot the OS.

I still own an hp/compaq dc7100 ultra slim form factor. Got it off craigslist for free about 3 years ago (?). Only problem it had was a small heat sink had come off the posts. I wired tied it back down, and that thing has been crunching on boinc projects at 100% cpu capacity for the whole time. Used it as my main computer for about 2 1/2 years until I got a netbook then (last year) built an i5 box. It's still sitting in the corner grinding away. Thing is just rock solid. Never had any issues with it, and speccy says it's running ~60F at 100%. Little Engine That Could.

You'd think they'd build these little biz comps to only handle like 25-50% cpu capacity heat, since the avg biz comp user won't be that abusive to the comp. But, these things seem to be built to withstand 100% cpu utilization and keep on chugging. Perhaps I'm making a broad generalization based on limited example, but so far so good. (Even my celeron at work was going 100% for the longest time while doing boinc until my bud in IT told me I had to stop it due to execs being tightwads about electric bills.)

Seriously, anyone interested in a 'home server' type box go look at one. In person if possible. (You can install Windows on it ya know?)

Complete antithesis of this garbled mess.

Also, has integrated power supply and supports 2 internal drives and 16GB ram.

Lots of businesses are still using the old VGA flat screens they first got when flat screens became the rage. Seems like every shitty Dell came with one as a selling feature. I could see tons of shops buying something like this, but keeping their crap VGA flat screens to plug it in to.

So... yeah ... VGA port.

What are you expecting, to play Crysis on this? Business adoption of technology is slow, man. You just gotta deal with it. And I'm not saying that to be snarky, but god knows I and many other tech/IT folks have to deal with the frustration every day. But, you do the best you can with what you've got, be it equipment or budget.

Now if Ars had a true review of economical high-performance mini-PC's -- that would be news. IMHO, it should be inclusive of laptops that could be docked, bare-bones systems that might even run Linux, Apple computer options, and home-theater PC's or boxes.

Those of us more technically inclined would know how to push the limits to get the system to do what we wanted.

Now if Ars had a true review of economical high-performance mini-PC's -- that would be news. IMHO, it should be inclusive of laptops that could be docked, bare-bones systems that might even run Linux, Apple computer options, and home-theater PC's or boxes.

Those of us more technically inclined would know how to push the limits to get the system to do what we wanted.

We're definitely working on getting more PCs in for review these days! Any suggestions you guys have about what you'd like to see are welcome.